OVERVIEW
Leading the way in sustainable energy, our client provides green electricity and natural gas to 250,000 homes and businesses across Ireland. They are the longest provider of 100% Renewable Electricity in Ireland.
BACKGROUND
Operating in the Irish market since the late 1990’s, this Energy company launched in Northern Ireland in the commercial energy sector, and over a decade later became Ireland's leading independent energy business supplying over 30% of large industrial electricity requirements.
THE CHALLENGE
In 2014, upon entering the Irish Republic’s residential energy market, they became aware of stiff competition from established energy providers. Consumer switching rates were low at 12 and 18 percent for electricity and gas. They sought a trusted outsourcing partner with the capacity to help them scale and grow.
THE SOLUTION
Realising the expertise to drive market entry and customer acquisition, Covalen was awarded the contract as the Irish Energy provider’s first residential sales team.
Gaining a strong understanding of the challenges its client faced, Covalen designed and delivered a best-in-class outsourced sales solution, which included a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system to attract and retain new customers.
Covalen’s coaching culture fosters an environment where continuous learning, growth and development are prioritised, resulting in heightened effectiveness. Training and development programmes systematically enhance employees’ product and market knowledge, communication skills, and customer understanding.
Regular feedback loops optimise individual performance, all of which contributed to a collective boost in sales delivery to meet and exceed client SLA’s.
Designed to be flexible and scalable, it’s an ever-evolving, innovative outsourced solution with a key focus on compliance—to meet industry regulations. The trusted partnership continues today.
KEY OUTCOMES
Go-to-market sales strategy: The outsourced sales team delivered market insights, identified target customers, established sales tactics and KPIs to drive growth and measure success.
Talent Management: Coaching programmes focused on developing employees’ strengths and areas for improvement, as well as ongoing support to enable career progression.
Excellence Culture: Empowering employees to continually strive for excellence together with reward and recognition, enabled peak performance. By the start of 2020, the team had tripled sales conversion targets.
Scale & Agility: In-built scalability allows sales structures to be re-evaluated and tweaked based on changing market conditions, as well as economic and competitive factors. Covalen developed customer-focused teams including Residential Sales, Customer Loyalty, Outbound Sales, and an Overflow Service for their client’s commercial energy business.
Business Continuity: Covalen rapidly transitioned to a remote operating model during the pandemic adhering to safety protocols. This ensured business continuity whilst maintaining excellent service and results throughout the global crisis and post-Covid.
- Tripled sales conversion targets (by early 2020)
- Consistently achieved QA targets
- Irish CCMA 2024 Award ‘Team of the year’ highly commended
- Three consecutive wins at ISC Awards (Irish Sales Champion)